


Overboss

by Nebulad



Series: Whiskey Molotov [26]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, Fluff, Nuka World Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 17:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8022508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: “But this fight coming up is rigged. You get me?”Her stance relaxed a bit and he caught sight of her face as she tried to look back, as if she could catch Colter cheating through the windows. It was too brief to really make out what she looked like properly. It was just her eyes again as she realised there was a camera there watching her; he couldn’t see the colour, but they were real severe. Not important at the moment— something for later, provided there was one.





	Overboss

Seven fucking people had run the Gauntlet in the past three days since Harvey went out. Five Gunners and two random fucking wasters all took the goddamn train, and not one of them even made it to the maze. Gage quit bothering to keep track of them, just tinkering away at Colter’s dumbass fucking suit and waiting for RedEye to confirm the gory death count.

Every one of theirs brought him a step closer to his.

So he was pacing the park because he’d quit sleeping once the clock started ticking. This whole Overboss mess had started with three months for him to lure in a waster, and now he was down to a week left. If someone didn’t kill Colter soon, then Gage was fucked; Nisha was losing her patience, Mason didn’t have any to start with, and Mags figured both of them were animals so once Colter and Gage were gone she could step up with her brother while everyone else was busy peeling his fucking skin off.

She was probably right.

“Lookin’ a little down there, boss.” Fritsch was a nervous little weirdo, but didn’t do no harm. He ran the arcade that kept a surprising amount of the bored raiders busy— a blessing in the past few months, so Gage never bothered to point out that they’d missed a trader. “Got something to cheer you up— train’s coming in.”

“Yippee,” he said flatly. Another faceless waster come to get wasted, while Nisha tried to catch Gage’s eye to warn him that if he didn’t hurry the fuck up she would be literally catching his eye as it popped out of his skull.

“Harvey told them everything,” Fritsch added casually, and Gage paused.

“And they’re still coming.”

“Yup. Real casual about it too— RedEye’s on the camera and says they’re just sitting on the train and looking out the window when the robot voice tells them to.” Gage was starting to get one of those plans that just might save his ass— kind of like killing Colter, except this one would work the first time.

Just _leaving_ these people and hoping one of them was smart enough to not fucking step on a mine and blow themselves up wasn’t working so far. Maybe it was time to cheat the system a little: the bosses would never know if he gave this one a little push, and hell, if they found out, what would they do to him that they weren’t already gunna? If he wanted to get out of this stupid Colter mess he’d walked into, then he had to be a raider about it. Ideals and provings were nice and all, but if this fuck could manage to scramble through the Gauntlet on their own then maybe...

“You still got that line into the monorail?” he asked.

“Yeah boss. Waster should be going by the Grille by now.”

. . . . .

Gage was trying to feign disinterest in the Gauntlet like he always did, but luckily Colter was eating that shit right up. He had a screen on and was pissed off because he _couldn’t see_ the waster. No one could— no one had for the past half hour. The going was slow but they hadn’t triggered _anything_ yet. Despite himself, Gage had peeked over a few times and wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Progress was being made, doors were being opened, traps were being disarmed by the dozens, but the camera couldn’t catch sight of who was doing it. There wasn’t even a shimmer that meant they had a Stealth Boy— near as Gage could tell, whoever it was just didn’t wanna be seen.

Didn’t have a choice when they finally missed a trap, though.

It was a tension trigger on an old safe that got her, setting off a tesla arc that outlined her for the briefest of seconds before she aimed up and blasted it. Her face flashed clearly in the purple blast and… well moments later Gage would forget entirely what she looked like, but for one hot second he _swore_ they made eye contact. Like she _knew_ he was there— well, course she _knew._ He’d talked to her when she was on the monorail, and lucky for him that RedEye’s camera didn’t have audio.

But it felt for a second like she was looking at him directly and it made him feel weird and unsettled. He didn’t look to see what happened after the arc got shot out, but heard Colter swearing because the waster just dropped out of sight again. “Not a fucking point to watching it live if no one’s fucking there,” he said, tossing a beer bottle at the screen.

“Might be someone to actually fight, for once,” he offered. “Gangs could use it after the past few months. People are getting bored.”

“And what exactly’s been _boring_ them?” Colter asked like he was offended, and Gage resisted the urge to hock his fucking wrench at the idiot.

“Maybe if you opened my fucking emails you’d know,” he snapped.

“Don’t get pissy with me. We’ll take the parks back in due time, but we’ve got a _good thing_ going here in Nuka Town. What’s the point of trying to grab up more if we’re already set?” he asked, his hand clumsily reaching for the Jet inhaler by his side. Gage clenched his jaw shut to resist fucking headbutting him, his eye flashing back to the screen. RedEye was complaining because she’d sniped that creepy monkey puppet that was meant to set off the turrets. Popped the turrets too, for good measure.

Couldn’t recall what she looked like, but couldn’t quite forget her eyes just watching him. Stupid, really.

. . . . .

Colter couldn’t see her even as she crossed the catwalk— Gage couldn’t see her either, but Colter ordered him off to start running the show pretty quick. He had to judge by the door opening in the locker room whether or not she was there, but when he called out to her she just… showed up. He could see her plain as day— back of her head, at least, since they only had the one camera. It was like she’d always been standing there, though, and he’d just noticed she wasn’t part of the scenery.

Surprised him a little was all, which was his excuse for being so short. That and the fear that after she got this far Colter was gunna tear her to pieces and rocket Gage back to square one. “All right, listen the hell up if you wanna make it out of this alive. I’ve only got a minute,” he said, slamming the intercom button a bit too hard while Colter went through his pre-fight exercises.

“Who’s this?” she asked, pressing the button tentatively.

“I’m the guy who’s gunna get you out of this alive, so listen up.” Time was wasting, and he felt it keenly.

“What the fuck is this place?” Funny that she didn’t sound mad about it or anything— mostly inconvenienced if anything, like she was a tourist going through a detour to get to the park.

“Make it through this alive and I’ll explain everything.” Kind of a prayer there— _make it through this alive, because if anyone finds out what I’m doing to help you and you die?_

“How about you tell me now?” she suggested, and time was fucking ticking but she didn’t seem to feel it at all. He gave in because it was easier than arguing.

“All right, all right. The Gauntlet’s the Overboss’ pet project. Lure in whoever we can, however we can. Like that guy Harvey and his ‘poor family’? Total bullshit just to get you here.” Was that enough for her or what, because Colter had a short fucking attention span.

“Yeah, I gathered that.” He’d forgotten that part, that she knew Harvey was bullshit and leading her into a trap, but _forgive_ him for being absent minded as he was trying to pull off a murder.

“Stuck here anyway ain’t you? So if you’ll listen to what I got to say you might actually live through this.”

“Why should I trust you?” For _fuck_ sakes he wasn’t asking her to goddamn marry him, he was trying to save her ass. What did it matter how it benefitted him to do it, so long as she came out alive at the end?

“I _suppose_ that depends on how much you value your life,” he said tersely.

“I’m just wondering what you’re gunna get out of this.” She still had her back to the camera, her arms folded over her chest like there was a person standing there she could intimidate.

“We’ll _both_ be reaping the rewards if you pull this off— if you’ll just let me fucking tell you what _it_ is?” No point in waiting for an answer, so he trudged on without her say-so. He’d apologise proper when she was the boss. “Look: you make it this far, you’ve obviously got skill.” It didn’t even hurt to admit because one trap out of a million were some fucking odds he was willing to bet his life on. “But this fight coming up is rigged. You get me?”

Her stance relaxed a bit and he caught sight of her face as she tried to look back, as if she could catch Colter cheating through the windows. It was too brief to really make out what she looked like properly. It was just her eyes again as she realised there was a camera there watching her; he couldn’t see the colour, but they were real severe. Not important at the moment— something for later, provided there was one.

“Overboss Colter… his power armour’s set up to draw energy from the electric grid in the arena,” he continued as her head snapped back to face the intercom. “Damn thing’s invincible. You name it, someone’s tried it— miniguns, grenades, not a scratch. You _get_ what I’m saying?” Truthfully he didn’t know much about her aside from her eyes making him feel all _looked at,_ so it was important to make sure that they were square on the same page.

“So how do I beat him then?” she asked, not at all concerned. He wished he could fucking pinpoint who she was— she had to be _someone_ if she was so fucking relaxed about walking into a rigged fight against a killer in power armour.

“I stashed a weapon in the lockers. Get it.” She gave the camera a _look,_ figuring that it was him looking (it was, and maybe RedEye, though if the DJ could see her he wasn’t making no mention of it). He made sure to look at her properly this time— pretty good looking all things considered, but it still wasn’t important. Nothing was more vital than getting her through this fight, though he could see how she looked when she picked up the water gun. “Yeah yeah, I know what it looks like. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

“Is this a fucking joke?” she asked. “Putting aside the fact that it’s a fucking water gun, you see _my_ gun? Do I look at all prepared to get close range to this guy?”

“It’s the perfect weapon for a guy draining electricity from the building and into his armour. Once the water hits him, he’s gunna short out,” Gage said flatly. “And as for close range, it’s either that or die trying to snipe him. You’ll only have a short window of time while his suit powers back up, but it should be enough. If you can pull this off, it’ll be worth every second of the Gauntlet.”

“Better be,” she said, pointing the gun out and squirting it. She wasn’t wrong— didn’t shoot too terribly far, but he defied her to show him a fucking weapon’s grade water gun.

“All right then, it’s time. I’ll open the door for you— try not to take too long,” he said, watching her hook the toy to her belt. He watched her walk away, expecting her to turn towards the door— instead she seemed to duck into the wall, where he figured there must’ve been a hole he couldn’t see. All at once, his video feed shuddered and died— the whole arena lost thirty percent power. “Shit, did you do that?” he asked.

“Pulled a fusion core,” she said.

“Good thinking. That’ll help, a bit.” He heard her laugh.

“Didn’t really do it on purpose. Just got sticky fingers,” she said, and then he stopped hearing her too. He noticed, though, that she made sure Colter saw her approach the door. Boss started his showboating while Gage tried to keep his fucking lunch down— the waster disappeared again, but it didn’t seem to bother the Overboss now that he had the crowd behind him.

The fight began, and in truth Gage didn’t even see Audrey use the squirt gun although she had to have been uncomfortably close to do it. She got a few good shots in before the armour kicked back up, and Colter was _royally_ pissed. “I don’t know how you did that, but you ain’t getting out of this alive,” he shouted as he spun, trying to catch sight of her. “Gage, if you’re behind this…”

 _Don’t fail me now, waster,_ he thought fervently, staring forward impassively.

“Someone’s mechanic ain’t got long to live!” RedEye taunted. He ignored it because it was gunna be fine. The waster was gunna see this through, Colter was gunna die, and Gage wasn’t. He had to believe it because he was gunna get tossed in that ring right smartly if this all fell through.

And to his never-ending fucking surprise, it happened. Colter hit the floor after a bullet took him through the head. He didn’t even move. No one moved for a second, but then the Pack went fucking _wild_ and suddenly the waster was standing overtop of him. She just kneeled down to rifle through his shit like it was nothing, like there weren’t groups of hungry raiders barely caged around her, like there weren’t five different people demanding answers from him suddenly.

“All right all right, now get the hell out of here. I’ll show the boss around,” he snapped— he forgot who was speaking to him, but it didn’t fucking matter. His head felt light. He wasn’t gunna die and his plan fucking worked, and he wasn’t gunna die with Colter. “What’d I tell you?” he asked as the waster approached the box he was in. “Worked like a charm.”

She smiled at him and he felt all— electric again. Euphoria, maybe, like he’d just taken some Psycho to the fucking brain, because he was gunna live. The next part would be hard but he would be alive to see it. “So you really wanted the Overboss dead, huh?” she asked, holstering her rifle.

“Dead, out of the way, what’s the difference? Either way, it worked. We won,” he said, beaming back.

“Death by squirt gun. _Love_ to see that on his tombstone,” she said, rolling her shoulders. Adrenaline was like a visible aura around her, which was weird because he didn’t think snipers got that hyped. Kind of the point for them to stay cool and calm about the shooting, which always seemed boring as fuck to him. Either he’d been wrong about snipers or wrong about her.

“Tell me about it. Wish I had a better look at his face when the suit shorted out.” Wish he’d bothered to look instead of taking a few minutes to try and manually beat his own heart and breathe at the same time. “Look, I know you got no idea what’s going on and everything is coming at you real fast, but you need to listen again.”

“Sorry, did I sound disturbed? Because I feel like I could punch a deathclaw right about now.” Seemed like when her life wasn’t in immediate danger she was kinda chipper— it wasn’t even annoying, but he couldn’t tell if it was that she was a tolerable person or that he was so glad his plan finally worked that he didn’t care.

“Either way you oughta hear me out,” he said, and she rocked her weight back on her heels. “So taking out Colter wasn’t some last minute plan. A few of us here have been working on it for a while.” That was an overstatement, sure, but best to give the bosses credit for letting him go through with it at all instead of letting shit devolve into war. He was feeling kind. “Now that he’s actually _gone,”_ and did that sound thrilled because he fucking was, “we seem to have a vacancy in the Overboss department. And guess what… you just got the job.”

He tried to examine her for a reaction, but there wasn’t one. She just kept looking at him real even, her stance all straightened up now to show that she was focusing on him. Maybe a little too hard if she wasn’t reacting to this whole _king of the raiders_ thing.

“All I’m asking is that you trust me and give it a shot. I swear it’ll be worth it,” he finished, hoping she got that he was all done explaining.

“So first you lure me in here, now you wanna put me in charge?” she asked flatly.

“Something like that,” he said with a shrug, suddenly nervous. _Don’t you piss out on me now._ There was so much he had to tell her— about the gangs, about the atmosphere since Colter had gone and pissed them all off, Nisha and Mason and Mags and William. There was so much for her to do, but first he had to make sure that she was willing and ready to make it happen. “Look, I won’t lie— we’re in a bad way here, but I think you’ve got what it takes to turn this place around and keep these gangs from tearing each other apart.”

“Why me?” she asked, still looking at him in that way that made him nervous. “Why not you?”

“We’ll… get to that later, but here isn’t really the place for questions.” Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure that _everyone_ had vacated. Surely there were some Pack hanging around, smashing beer bottles over each other’s heads or something— not the place for the new boss to admit she didn’t know what the fuck was happening. “Let me get that door for you, and then meet me on top of Fizztop Mountain. We’ll make a plan from there.”

She leaned against the window to watch him click away at his console. “You’re the one from the monorail,” she said, and he nodded without looking. “Porter Gage.”

“Gage’ll do, boss.”

“I’m Audrey.” He almost laughed. Almost, because at the same time he finally realised who she was— that batshit fucking Railroad agent who blew up the Brotherhood of Steel— he was kind of thinking of Connor from way back when. _The Harvester._ The waster’s big scary raider name was just _Audrey,_ and hell he kind of hoped it caught on. Maybe then people would stop giving themselves stupid ass names to sound _scary—_ though to give credit where it was do, the raider bosses also used their own names.

The door swung open. “Good to meet you. Fizztop has first aid kits and a bed for you, so I’d hurry on up there. Don’t worry about talking to no one— that can come later,” he instructed, real quiet so no one could overhear. He saw her clearly and in colour for the first time, and all right. The new boss looked real good, but that mattered less to him than taking back the parks.

So long as she could do that, he didn’t care if she was a fucking feral.

**Author's Note:**

> just had to get something out now that school's starting. Have some meet cute. [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and my whole fucking dorm smells like shit and motor oil bc of the constant fucking construction.


End file.
